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September 2008 |
Issue #43 |
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China: Energy Policy & the OlympicsFollowing the spectacle of the Beijing Olympics 08’ we thought we would take an opportunity in this latest MZINE article to have a look at Chinese energy policy and carbon emissions, to consider the extent to which hosting the Olympics has affected, and may continue to affect, China’s energy future. Growing carbon emissionsIn the years leading up to 2008 China has been rapidly increasing its contribution to worldwide carbon emissions; China has been in rapid economic and industrial development over the last decade, and carbon emissions have continued to grow with this development. Between 2000 and 2007 worldwide carbon emissions from fossil fuel combustion increased an estimated 22% to 8.2 billion tons. China is estimated to have contributed to 57% of the growth of carbon emissions during this period, whilst India the US, and Europe has contributed 8%, 4% and 3% respectively. The latest data suggests that China has now overtaken the USA as the world’s leading man-made CO2 emitter, with an increase of 8% this year. A few years ago it was forecast that China would take no.1 spot in 2020. It is worth noting that 8% of China’s CO2 emissions come from cement making, which may slacken off following the completion of a large number of Olympic building projects. The USA still produces 4 times as much CO2 per capita as China. The dependence of the Chinese energy market on coal has been a major contributing factor to the growth of carbon emissions in China. Coal provides up to 70% of the commercial energy in China. Between in 2006 and 2007 China added 186,000 MW of coal-power electrical generating capacity, this is the equivalent to twice the entire electricity grid of the UK. China’s dependence on coal, its recent emergence as a net importer of coal for the first time has driven the price of coal to nearly twice as much as it was a few years ago. Cleaning up at the Olympics?China’s current situation does not look too positive, as a rapidly growing country emitting large amounts of carbon. However, the Olympics coming to Beijing in 2008 has been one of a number of factors encouraging the Chinese government to looking into greener methods of supply energy to its burgeoning economy and the growing lifestyle aspirations of its people. As part of this effort China has invested 17 billion US Dollars to clean up some of the pollution around Beijing. Some of the measures introduced include the following: - Up to 200 polluting industries have been closed or switched to new clearer methods of production, or moved out of the city, in the 7 years up to Beijing ‘08. - Since July 20th 2008, Chinese authorities have put measures in place to remove up to half of Beijing’s 3.3 million cars from the road; this means restricting car owners to drive on alternate days depending on the last number of their number plate. This move is estimated to reduce vehicle emissions by 63%. There was also introduced a special Olympic lane which required a special pass for vehicles to use. - A Olympic forest has been created in the centre of Beijing, this forest has been man-made, everything in the park is artificial, it is built on a hill from the rubble recovered from the construction of the Bird’s Nest stadium and other nearby Olympic facilities, a lake has been dug by bulldozers and is irrigated with 280,000 cubic metres of water which is pumped in everyday through 40 km of pipes coming from outside of the city. Now over 51 percent of land in Beijing is covered by plants. The air in Beijing is polluted not just because of the emissions coming from industry in Beijing, but in fact from many of the surrounding regions from which the pollution blows in from various coal mines, coal-fired power plants, cement factories, and steel mills, these will be some of the various facilities included in the temporary closures over and before the Olympics, along with various construction works, chemical plants, factories and power stations. Lasting effects?On a more permanent side of things China, which currently producing 75% of the world’s light bulbs, has promised to start substituting all incandescent light bulbs, to energy efficient ones. A $2.3 billion subway line and airport link was also opened which linked the Northern Zhongguancun region with Beijing which should help alleviating some of the traffic around Beijing. However, it could be argued that China’s growing carbon emission is partly the responsibility of the Western world as one third of China’s carbon CO2 emissions are the result of exported goods destined for developed countries. China’s export emissions account for 6 percent of the World’s global emissions. This is equivalent to the combined emissions of Germany, France and the UK. So, as was seen in August, a huge amount of effort and money and been put in by the Chinese government to make the Olympics a success, including in terms pollution abatement. There has been positive progress made by the Chinese, but the main concern is whether this progress will continue, especially as several of the measures have seemingly been temporary measures i.e. the shutting down of industrial processes and etc. It remains to be seen what impact the Olympics and the growing awareness of environmental issues in China will have for the longer term. Researched and written by Tim Madden.
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MJMENERGY LTD have provided all the information in this newsletter
free of charge to anyone who wishes to read it. We cannot be held
responsible for any inaccuracies although all information is
believed to be correct at time of publication. Whilst articles
published in this newsletter often carry a particular point of view,
publication of them does not imply that we necessarily agree with
them. Anyone wishing to contact the editorial team with regards to
any of the above articles should email: editor@mjmenergy.com, or
phone +44 (0) 845 299 7072. |
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